Family Secrets
by Elfsong
Summary: Schwarz joins Weiss, and one of the members discovers he is related to one of the members of Schwarz. But why do his nightmares feature his father? Slightly OOC. the update was only rewording in Ch. 8
1. A New Addition to the Team

A/N: No real base in Weiss Kreuz timeline, Schwarz has joined with Weiss. All of the main characters (i.e. Weiss and Schwarz) look like the Gluhen version of themselves except for Farfarello, because he looks a lot better in the original anime. ^^ - loves Farfie  
  
~~  
  
"Weiss, we have four new members for you to meet," Manx said as she entered the flower shop. The four young men who had been working looked at her.  
  
"Who are they, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?" Omi asked. Everyone had gotten used to Omi asking about things that didn't immediately concern missions, but were closely-related enough that it needed to be asked. Aya would only ask about things that could jeopardize the missions, Yohji only seemed to care about getting a date, and Ken never thought that far ahead anyway.  
  
"Their names are Bradley Crawford, Schuldich Kitada, Farfarello Jei, and Nagi Naoe. I believe you already know their strengths," Manx paused for a moment, letting the information settle in the boys' minds.  
  
"What! They can't join us! They've spent the last . . . nine months trying to kill us!" Ken shouted.  
  
"Who would be in charge of the team?" Aya asked, staying true to form by asking about how it would affect the missions.  
  
Manx smiled slightly, having already anticipated their responses. "Yes, they have spent the last nine months trying to kill you, however, their own employers tried to kill them. I'm sure you can understand wanting revenge on the group that betrayed them. And, we now have access to top-secret information concerning Esset. As to your question Abyssinian, you would still give the commands, but Oracle will be your second-in-command. Bombay and Prodigy will split the computer work between them. They already know this, so it should not be a problem." She looked at the faces of Weiss, and saw Ken trying to say something, but not finding the right words. "Yes, Siberian, Berserker has been told to stay away from you and your claw." Ken's face relaxed, his relief evident. "Any other questions?"  
  
She waited for a few minutes, but, hearing nothing else, nodded and headed to the door. "They will arrive by the end of the week."  
  
"Wait!" Yohji called to her.  
  
"I will NOT go out with you, Balinese" Manx said, not waiting to hear his . . . request.  
  
"That's not it. I mean, I would still like you to, and I know you'd enjoy it, too. But, what I wanted to ask was where are they going to be sleeping? We only have the four bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and shop. The missions room isn't very comfortable, and we only have the one couch in the living room, so . . ." Yohji trailed off, looking expectantly at Manx.  
  
"They will be sharing the bedrooms with you. If the four of you want to share rooms, leaving the other two open for them, that's fine, or if you want to share with them, that works, too. It's really up for the four of you to decide that." And, that said, Manx walked out the door.  
  
~~  
  
"I really don't care what the arrangements are, so long as I don't have to share a room with Farfarello. Whether he's been told to stay away from me or not, he has a thing with my bugnuks."  
  
It had been three days since Manx had told Weiss about Schwarz joining them. The other team had yet to show up, and it was a good thing, too. No one in Weiss was looking forward to sharing rooms with them, and one particular member didn't want to have to share a room, period.  
  
"If he touches my bugnuks, I'll . . ." Ken made a motion of strangling the air to finish his threat.  
  
"He enjoys pain, though. How is that going to make him stop? Hey Aya?" Omi waited for the redhead to acknowledge him before continuing. "What would you do if he messed with your katana?" A pair of violet orbs narrowed dangerously, causing the rest of Weiss to back away a few steps.  
  
"Tie him to the wall of a room and fill the room with crosses, angels, and other religious items." Aya finally responded.  
  
"That would work . . ." Ken stroked his chin as he thought of ways to improve on Aya's plan. "Oh! How about- "  
  
He didn't have a chance to continue, because at that moment, Manx walked in, leading four men. "Weiss, these are your new members. They will keep their original codenames, but they are no longer Schwarz." After a moment's silent tension, she nodded and left the apartment.  
  
"We were told we would be sharing rooms?" Crawford asked, breaking the silence.  
  
"The only request was that Siberian not share with Berserker, so he and I will share a room." Aya responded.  
  
Crawford nodded once, and spoke. "Berserker will be sharing a room with me. Are you going to let the others decide for themselves?"  
  
Aya looked to Omi, who was already engrossed in a computer discussion with Nagi, and then back up to his new second-in-command. "That won't be necessary. Bombay and Prodigy will share Bombay's room. Balinese and Mastermind will share Balinese's room."  
  
"Whose room will we be taking?" Crawford asked, not really caring, but wanting to get it out of the way. His visions had not told him of the details of living with Weiss.  
  
"Siberian's."  
  
"HEY!! They can't take my room! Why can't they take yours?" Ken yelled.  
  
"If I had to go into your room, you would spend the next week cleaning it. Deal with it."  
  
~~  
  
Eventually, everything was arranged, and furniture had been rearranged to accommodate eight people. It had been decided that, at least for the first night, the assassins would share beds (A/N: Not like that, Hentais!), and they would work out the bed problem the next day.  
  
However, that night Ken discovered what the sounds he had been hearing for the past few months really were. His room was next door to Aya's, so he could hear most noises from the other. Ken had just fallen asleep, when a soft whimper brought his eyes back open.  
  
He looked to the wall side of the bed at his teammate. Aya was curled into a ball and whimpering. His entire body was shaking and every once in awhile, he would flinch. "Aya?" Ken whispered. At the sound of his name, the redhead curled tighter into himself. "Aya!" Ken called a little louder. When he still received no response, he put his hand on the older assassin's arm.  
  
"No, please . . ." Aya whimpered. "I . . . I'm sorry . . . Tousan . . . no . . ." Ken looked at his friend worriedly. Was this what those noises were? Had Aya been having nightmares for the past three and a half months, and no one had even noticed? Suddenly, Ken recalled the dark bags under the pale man's eyes, and how slowly he had been moving lately. He also remembered how Aya seemed to want to stay up all night. Aya had used every excuse he could think of to not go to bed. And when those had stopped working, he had simply glared at anyone who even started to say anything.  
  
Ken's thoughts were interrupted by a more desperate cry from the redhead. Without a second thought, he wrapped his arms around the older man and rocked him, whispering reassurances into his hair. After a few more minutes of whimpered cries, Aya was lulled back to sleep. Ken looked into the calmed face of his friend, and saw the still-fresh tear tracks on his cheeks. "What's hurt you like this? What did your father do that bothers you so much?" he whispered. Receiving no answer, Ken gently released the other man and moved back to his side of the bed. He fell asleep to the sound of Aya's breathing.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: What do you think? At the moment, I like (of course, I know where it's going, so . . .) Please review and let me know! The next chapter will probably be another slow one, but it'll get into the plot soon, I promise. 


	2. On the Road to Villa White

"No! I absolutely refuse to share a room with him for one more night! I'd rather share with Ken, in Ken's room, than share with that . . . creature for one more night! I- "  
  
"Yohji, SHUT UP!" All the noise in the kitchen stopped and everyone looked up. It was uncharacteristic of Aya to talk to Yohji, let alone yell at him. The redhead looked about ready to hit Yohji, but settled for talking in a quiet - if strained - voice. "If you want to share with Ken that badly, go ahead." He turned to Crawford. "Do you want to move to Yohji's room, or should I?" he asked  
  
"If you move to Yohji's room, Farfarello and I will be in your room," Crawford reminded him. Aya just nodded and gestured for Crawford to answer the question. "We'll take Yohji's. There's no sense in making you leave your room." Aya nodded his thanks and told Yohji to move his things into Ken's room.  
  
Schwarz had been there for a week, and nerves were getting high for everyone. The only good that had come from it - at least in Ken's opinion - was that Aya seemed to be having fewer nightmares. They were ready to divide the living room into bedrooms, but only stopped because Manx had told them that the sharing was temporary.  
  
At that moment, Manx entered the apartment. "Hello Weiss - What happened here?" She asked, looking around the room. There were papers scattered all over the table and countertops, the fridge was slightly open, it looked like the dishes hadn't been done in months, and all eight of the assassins were in dirty-looking clothes. In short-it may as well have been a war zone.  
  
"The bedrooms are worse," Nagi commented offhandedly. Manx's eyebrows rose at that statement, but she managed to keep silent about the house keeping.  
  
"I have some good news for you," she announced. Omi, Nagi, Ken, and Crawford looked at her, Farfarello played with the eggbeater, Schuldich continued to eat his cereal, and Aya yawned. "Where is Yohji?" she asked, noticing the absence of flirting.  
  
"He's moving his stuff into Ken's room. Aya pulled rank on him," Schuldich said, snickering. "YOHJI! Get down here!" he called up the stairs. A few moments later, a very sweaty Yohji emerged, panting.  
  
"Kritiker has decided that now is as good a time as any to add onto the flower shop. You can have a four-month vacation while we remodel," Manx announced to the eight assassins. She received six happy looks, a light smirk, and an impassive nod. Deciding that that was the best she was going to get, she continued. "Kritiker would prefer all of you going to Villa White for the vacation. That way, the eight of you will get to know one another better in less cramped quarters."  
  
"When are we supposed to leave?" Crawford asked.  
  
"You can leave as soon as you want, but you have to leave by the end of next week."  
  
~~  
  
Three hours later, they were all piled into a van, headed to Villa White for a four-month vacation. The van was pulling a trailer, carrying everything they 'couldn't live without', i.e. computers, hair products, random kitchen appliances, soccer equipment, and two entire walk-in closets worth of clothes.  
  
And after five hours of driving, a certain telepath was getting bored.  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Now?"  
  
"Hn."  
  
"How about now?"  
  
"Schuldich, if you don't cut it out, I'm going to throw you out the window."  
  
"Bra~ad! Yohji's being mean to me!!"  
  
"You deserve it."  
  
"That's not fair! I wasn't doing anything wrong!"  
  
" . . . "  
  
"Shut up, Aya."  
  
~~  
  
"I have to go to the bathroom!"  
  
"You should have gone before we left."  
  
"Aya, that's cruel! Even if I had gone before we left, there's no way I could drink an entire Route 44** without having to go again! Besides, we've been in the car for HOURS!"  
  
"Hush, Yohji."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"Don't mention it."  
  
"Hey! Crawford's not supposed to be on Aya's side!"  
  
"I know!"  
  
And that formed the bond between two self-proclaimed gods of love and seduction.  
  
~~  
  
"Hey Aya?"  
  
"Hn."  
  
"What are you thinking about?"  
  
"If you go into my mind, Schuldich, being thrown out the window will be he least of your worries."  
  
"What can you do to me?"  
  
"Finding out will require my doing them to you."  
  
"I like the sound of that!"  
  
"You won't enjoy it."  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
"Brad and I compared notes on team members."  
  
~~  
  
Finally, after a ten-hour** drive to Villa White, they arrived, some calmer than others.  
  
"Yohji, get back here and take your punishment like a man!"  
  
"Bu if I wait any longer, I'll wet myself!"  
  
"I know that! Now get back here!"  
  
~~  
  
"So where are we sleeping tonight?" Nagi asked quietly upon entering the cottage.  
  
"Pick a room. We'll deal with the real arrangements tomorrow," Omi answered.  
  
"Yeah, Aya rarely sleeps the first night anyway. He just sits on the balcony, and then complains about being sick the next day," Yohji added.  
  
"I don't get sick. I complain about your cooking being bad enough to poison even Ken," Aya corrected as he entered the room.  
  
~~  
  
The next morning, as expected, Aya was complaining about Yohji's cooking, and Yohji was pretending to be insulted.  
  
"Aya, if you don't like my cooking, you can just make your own." The redhead in question stood up and headed to the stove. Yohji immediately stepped in front of him. "Aya, I was just kidding! Come on! I've been practicing since last time!"  
  
"Yeah, he's only hospitalized one date since last time we were here! He's either getting better, or he's been ordering more take-out!" Ken offered.  
  
"If you hate his cooking so much, why do you let him cook?" Farfarello asked, acting as the voice of reason. Weiss was shocked, but the ex-members of Schwarz knew that the Irish man wasn't half as mad as he let people believe.  
  
"It's really not that bad," Aya explained.  
  
"Then . . . why do you complain about it?" Nagi asked, confused.  
  
"At first his cooking was awful," Omi explained. "We had to cut one vacation short because we all got food poisoning. But he's gotten better."  
  
"Complaining about his cooking is a habit," Aya finished, accepting a plate from Yohji and getting himself a cup of coffee.  
  
~~  
  
"So, let me get this straight, four of us will still have to share a room?" Schuldich asked.  
  
Omi nodded. "Yes, there are only six bedrooms. Nagi and I have talked to Brad and Aya, and we decided that Nagi and I will share one of them, and Brad will continue sharing with Farfarello. He said that Farfarello's been calmer since he started sharing a room with Brad." Schuldich nodded his agreement and headed to the van to move his things.  
  
The arrangement was that Omi and Nagi would have the room under the stairs, and Brad and Farfarello would have the room next to that. Schuldich would have the room at the top of the stairs, Yohji would have the room to the right of his. Ken had the room to the left of Schuldich's, and Aya was across the hall from Ken; somehow or another, he still managed to get the biggest, and best-kept, balcony in the house.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: I love Sonic's Route 44 drinks! If memory serves correctly, they are at least double the size of a large. If someone remembers the size better, please correct me on that. All I know is that my brother has yet to finish one, and he's been ordering them for . . . eight years. Also, I have no idea how long it would take to get to Villa White, it just fit my purposes for it to be ten hours. Please review and let me know what you think so far. This chapter had a bit more humor than I was planning, but I think it turned out fairly well. Oh, and I do know that I'm changing the layout of Villa White to suite my needs, but that's one of the perks of being an author, right? 


	3. Snow and Secrets

"HA! Take that, Ex-Schwarz scum!!"  
  
"Hey! I'm ex-Schwarz too!"  
  
"Sorry, that was just an automatic insult. And it was so easy to say! It just rolls off the tongue." Schuldich accepted Yohji's strange apology with a smirk and returned his attention to the enemy: Omi, Nagi, and Farfarello. Schuldich, Yohji, and Ken had been challenged to an all-out, loser has to buy winner an expensive dinner, fight-to-the-death, snowball war.  
  
Brad and Aya were on the porch, both absorbed in their own little worlds. Brad was reading a newspaper that he had gone into town to buy earlier that day, and Aya was curled up on the porch rail with a book. No one even bothered to question #1: Why he wanted to sit on the railing in the first place, and #2: How he managed to keep his balance in that position. From time to time, one would call out a warning, threat, or (rarely) encouragement, and then go back to reading.  
  
After another thirty minutes had gone by, Brad went back into the house to "get feeling back". Aya nodded absentmindedly, never lifting his eyes from the book. Brad smiled softly and went into the house. A few minutes later, he returned carrying a tray with seven mugs of hot cocoa on it. The younger assassins called a temporary truce while they drank their hot cocoa, and sat around the porch, talking battle strategies.  
  
When the hot cocoa was finished, Brad came back outside to collect the cups. "Thank you," Aya murmured, still more engrossed in the book than paying attention to the world.  
  
"For what?" Brad asked, correctly assuming that he was the one the younger man had been speaking to.  
  
"For the hot cocoa."  
  
"Don't worry about it." Aya looked up and offered a small smile, making Brad glad he had thought of it.  
  
~~  
  
After another few hours of playing in the snow, the six snowball fighters had found a winner - Omi, Nagi, and Farfarello - and had almost worn themselves out. They were all lying in the snow, the chibis and Ken making snow angels, and Farfarello trailing behind them, destroying the angels. Yohji and Schuldich looked up to the porch where Aya was still reading.  
  
"You know . . ." Schuldich started, gesturing to the silent redhead, "we need to do something to get the ice princess into the snow. He's cold enough that he just might enjoy it."  
  
"Ice princess . . . hmm, I'll have to remember that one. But he hates the snow, trust me. Omi, Ken, and I threw him off the porch a few years back, and I thought he'd never forgive us. He came downstairs later that day with his katana, and all I could think was 'This is the end. I'm going to die by the blade of my teammate'."  
  
"We'll just have to get him to come out here of his own free will."  
  
"And how do you propose we do that?"  
  
"Well . . . he did start yelling when you insulted me . . . maybe if we started throwing insults at each other . . ."  
  
"You're more desperate than I am. Do you really think he's going to fall for that?"  
  
"Of course he is. Watch." Schuldich suddenly jumped up, face scrunched up in rage. "You lying jerk!" he yelled, staring straight at Yohji.  
  
Yohji jumped up at the insult, and pushed Schuldich into the snow. "How dare you call me that! You're the murderous piece of scum that would sell out our own team as soon as tell them your name!"  
  
__ That's a good one! __ Schuldich sent to Yohji telepathically.  
  
"ENOUGH!!" Everyone outside looked at Aya, who was standing on the top step of the porch, looking close to murder. "Can't you two behave for ONE DAY?"  
  
"Well, excuse me, but he's the little bastard who- " But Schuldich didn't have a chance to finish the insult before a pale hand gripped the collar of his jacket and lifted him a few inches off the ground.  
  
"Do not even THINK about finishing that sentence, do you understand?" Schuldich tilted his head back to look at his captor. Aya's eyes held anger, frustration, and - to Schuldich's surprise - tears. When he nodded, Aya lowered him back to the ground and turned to go back inside.  
  
"Aya, wait!" The smaller redhead turned back to the telepath. "What happened? I mean, why does our insulting each other bother you so much?" After a few minutes of silence, Schuldich had gotten tired of waiting for a response. He spoke to Aya's lowered head. "Well? Are you going to answer me, or be your normal, emotionless, unfeeling self? Why is it that you can give us all kinds of commands, but when it comes to answering a simple question, you get quiet? Are we not good enough? Huh? Are you so good and important that you can't even answer a question from one of us mere mortals!"  
  
When Aya looked up, the others were surprised to see tears running freely down his cheeks. "Yes, I was going to answer you!" Aya yelled, his voice thick with tears. "You really want to know why it bothers me? Because I've heard those insults all my life! Every time I did something, it was never good enough; I'm just the 'bastard' that can never do anything right! You all call me emotionless and unfeeling, but maybe it's because I've had feelings kicked out of me! Have you ever thought of that? I grew up hated by everyone! I had to weigh everything I said so that I wouldn't get yelled at or hit for it later! You would be quiet, too! So stay out of things you can't understand. And while we're on 'simple questions', why don't you just go into my head and pick out the answers? Why are you suddenly so conscientious about other people's privacy?"  
  
Schuldich paused for a minute, trying to filter in all the younger man had said. "Be- " But Aya had already run into the house. The six assassins that were still outside exchanged looks and followed him in.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: What did you think? This is the result of reading a bunch of different kinds of fanfics, things that my family has told me about their lives, and a touch of insanity from my own imagination. I hope I didn't scare you with this one, but trust me, it has to do with the plot. The family stuff will come in a few more chapters, promise! Please review and let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions for what should happen in the next chapter, let me know? Thanks! 


	4. Learning the Reasons

A/N: Wow! 5 reviews! I feel so loved!! Thanks to Captain lesiem, ln1, Simply_Kim, Ranma, and Nashi! I'm not sure who's going to be paired up with whom yet, but my muses should make it obvious in the next couple chapters! ^^ And as for the relations, I'm hoping some hints of it will be in this chapter. The muses are writing this, not me!  
  
~~  
  
" . . . And then you yell at him for something he obviously didn't want you to know about!" Brad rubbed hid hand over his face. He had seen the redheaded leader of Weiss run into the house crying just moments before it actually happened. By the time he realized what he had seen, Aya was already upstairs and in the process of slamming his door closed.  
  
Two hours, six apologetic assassins, and a killer migraine later, Brad was finishing his lecture on privacy and hurting a teammate. Schuldich suspected that he was only this upset because he had a crush on the violet- eyed assassin, but even he was smart enough to know that mentioning that would be a bad idea.  
  
~~  
  
Up in his room, Aya could hear Brad's yelling, and the others' apologies. It helped to know that someone was sticking up for him, but he was angrier at himself than at Schuldich and Yohji. He hadn't meant to tell anyone about what his father used to say to him. It wasn't that what he said was so heartbreaking; it was the fact that everything he had said was true.  
  
The man who had raised Aya was not his real father; he had made sure to let the redhead know that from the time he was able to understand words. No, Aya knew the real story. The story behind his mother's sugarcoated words, and behind his "father's" cruel narration. He had heard the man telling his younger sister why she should hate her big brother.  
  
Aya's mother had been married to Kouga Fujimiya** for only a year when she got pregnant. At first, he had been delighted, but then he found out about his wife's 'friend'. They had been secretly seeing each other for a few months before the man had gotten her pregnant. He was an older man with two children of his own: a four-year-old girl, and a two-year-old boy. The man was the one Aya had gotten his red hair from. His mother could only remember that the man's last name was Kitada, and that the girl's name was Hanae. Kouga had seen no reason in finding out more.  
  
To hide his wife's unfaithfulness, he had claimed the baby as his own, at least on the birth certificate. Aya never got to meet his real father, or his older siblings. By the time he was old enough to look for himself, tragedy had struck the Fujimiya family. Aya had only been eighteen for a week when the house exploded, killing his entire family.  
  
Aya shook his head to clear it of his thoughts. When they kept circling in his head, he decided that it would be a good idea to go back downstairs, and at least let the younger assassins know he wasn't mad at them.  
  
~~  
  
"Um . . . Aya?" The redhead looked toward the voice that had called him. Schuldich was standing in the hallway, his own hair pulled up in a ponytail. Seeing that he had gotten the smaller man's attention, Schuldich continued. "Aya, I just . . . Look, I'm sorry. I should have let you . . . I don't know, not say anything. I mean, I should have left you alone and not pushed you into answering if you didn't want to."  
  
Aya couldn't help but notice the other's discomfort. It was a well-known fact - already - that Schuldich was not one for apologies. "What did Brad threaten you with?" Aya asked, smiling slightly at the look on Schuldich's face.  
  
"How did you- I mean, am I forgiven?" Aya nodded, leaving the German free to ask his earlier question. "How did you know he threatened me? And he told me he'd have Farf tie me to the bottom of the van for the ride home. He doesn't joke about stuff like that!" he added, seeing Aya trying to hide a smile.  
  
"I could hear you from my room. Sound travels in here."  
  
"Oh."  
  
~~  
  
Later that evening, the others had all apologized to Aya about earlier that day, although why anyone but Yohji and Schuldich did was a mystery to both him and Brad. Their explanation was that they had heard the playboys talking about getting him mad, but hadn't done anything to stop it.  
  
Nagi cooked that night, and to hide the flavor, everyone had had mass amounts of alcohol with the meal. It wasn't that Nagi was a bad cook; it was just that, with a computer so close, he hadn't payed attention to the food until the kitchen was thick with black smoke. They would have eaten out, but none of the restaurants close enough were any good, either.  
  
Unfortunately, Aya wasn't a big drinker, and the alcohol he consumed with the meal was enough to loosen him up. He had told the others about how Takatori was responsible for his family's death, and how Aya was not his real name. The others (especially the original Weiss members) immediately jumped at the chance to learn more about the violet-eyed redhead.  
  
"Aya isn't your real name?" Omi asked, hoping that would be enough to open him up.  
  
"Nope. Aya's my little sister."  
  
"You have a sister? Where is she?"  
  
"Dead." The lack of emotion in Aya's voice alerted the others to the fact that he had resigned himself to it.  
  
"What happened?" Ken asked, noticing for the first time the looks on Schuldich and Farfarello's faces.  
  
"When the house blew up, I got her to go outside. The roof fell on my legs, and while I was trapped, a car came out of nowhere and hit her. She was crossing the street at that time. I guess that it just hit her wrong, but she didn't move, and when I finally got free and got to her, the paramedics had arrived. We were taken to the hospital, and a week later she died.  
  
"That's horrible," Nagi whispered, having not been a part of Schwarz at the time of the accident.  
  
"So what IS your real name?" Yohji asked, seeing his teammates need for a subject change, and being overly curious about the answer.  
  
"Ran." At that point, he decided that that had been enough conversation for one day and left the table. As Yohji watched him leave, he remembered something he had noticed earlier that day.  
  
"Schuldich?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You and Ran look a lot alike when you're angry. It's kinda creepy; like you're related or something."  
  
~~  
  
A/N: What do you think? Was it good? I tried to put in Ran's situation without focusing the chapter on him, but it's so hard! Ran is my favorite Weiss member! (Farfie's my favorite Schwarz) Did it meet you expectations? I chose Kouga for Ran's father's name because I don't really like how he's turning out in this story, and I dislike the wolf demon from InuYasha. It just worked out that way. Also, I don't have my Japanese translater with me so I can't chose Japanese names like I usually do. 


	5. Back to the Koneko

A/N: Hello. I know this is not long after updating last time, but the muses have struck again! Thank you Romilly McAran for your comments. I know that Schuldich is a German name, but - as the all-powerful authoress - I'm taking the liberty of saying that his mother was German and his father was Japanese/German. In this, his father had a nasty sense of humor. I know Jei is Farfarello's real name, but Schwarz are really the only ones that know that, and I like the name Farfarello. Crawford is obeying Aya #1 because he has a massive crush on him (come on, why else would he bring Aya hot cocoa?) and #2 it was one of the requirements of joining Weiss. In this, Schuldich has gained the ability to put up mental shields. If he doesn't want to go into someone's head, he won't hear their thoughts. However, a very powerful thought WILL still creep in once in awhile. As for Farf, he's not really insane. I like to think he only acts insane to freak everyone out. And finally, I said in the summary that it was slightly OOC - that is, Out Of Character - so I know that they will not be behaving like themselves. I had to do that to make them fit my story. Besides, it's been three months since I watched the series! ^^ But once again, thank you for your comments, this LONG author's note was meant simply to explain to you (and others that didn't understand but weren't willing to review) why I had changed them so much. I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far, and I'm sorry if something I've said it here offended you (that happens sometimes). Please keep in mind that this part is strictly informative. Again, thank you.  
  
Wow! That was the longest A/N I've ever written! Let's see if the chapter can compete in length! ^^ Oh, and in case it never loads correctly, Schu's line in Chapter 3 was "That's a good one". It's when he and Yohji are insulting each other.  
  
__ telepathy __  
  
"speaking"  
  
~~  
  
The next four months passed fairly uneventfully. Everyone had settled into a routine and were getting along. The only problems came when Omi and Nagi got into a fight about the computer and internet time, and when Farfie decided it would be fun to tie Brad's underwear to the ceiling fans - in every room of the house.  
  
"So, Brad . . . I guess this makes the all-important question irrelevant," Yohji commented, watching the spinning underwear.  
  
"What question?" Brad asked, not needing his gift to know that the playboy's answer would spark many jokes from the telepath standing beside him.  
  
"You know. Boxers or Briefs." Yohji looked at the underwear again. "I didn't know they made heart and dinosaur print briefs for a twenty-seven- year-old man."  
  
That day had ended with Farfie tied to the balcony, Brad glaring every time he saw either playboy, and Yohji and Schuldich both cackling madly every time they saw Brad.  
  
~~  
  
On the last day at Villa White, Ken suggested a walk around the lake. Everyone was bored and had nothing better to do, so they joined him. The snow had just begun melting, and the ice on the lake was thin. As they walked, Ken, Omi, and Nagi discussed the advantages and disadvantages of being the youngest members of the group.  
  
"No, it would be better to be the youngest!" Ken exclaimed, arms jerking wildly as he stressed his point. "I'm third youngest now, and it's the worst position imaginable. I've got chibis under me, and . . . playboys, leaders, and a madman over me. The worst part is that I'm only two years younger than the main leader!"  
  
That comment drew Brad into their conversation. "You think you've got it bad? I'm seven years older than the leader. Yohji and Schuldich are both two years older, and Farfarello is the same age as him." Everyone looked at Brad as if he had grown another head. "What?"  
  
"You just joined a conversation. Of your own free will," Ken explained, still recovering.  
  
"So?"  
  
"I think the mountain air agrees with you Braddie!" Schuldich announced, jumping onto Brad's back.  
  
"It does make most people open up a little more," Yohji agreed, looking at Ran as if to say, "There's the exception".  
  
"Get off of me, Schuldich," Brad ordered, trying to glare at the telepath he was unwillingly giving a piggyback ride to. Schuldich was about to obey when he felt Brad stiffen underneath him. "Schuldich, don't- "  
  
"I know," Schu mumbled as he hopped off the clairvoyant's back. "Don't make you repeat yourself."  
  
"No, that's not- " But, once again, Brad was cut off. This time it was by a muffled yelp as Schuldich crashed into Ran, sending the younger redhead plunging into the lake. "RAN!" The young man didn't come up immediately, which the others felt he should.  
  
"What's taking him so long?" Yohji demanded, watching as Ken and Brad both got ready to dive in after Ran.  
  
"Why don't you tell us!" Nagi snapped. "You're more familiar with this area!"  
  
"Yeah, but we've never gone into the lake! Schuldich, what's keeping him down there?"  
  
"How should I know?!"  
  
"Read his mind, Baka!"  
  
"He's trapped on something! I can't tell if it's got his foot, his waist, or his neck!"  
  
"Those are some pretty crucial differences!"  
  
"I know! He's too panicked right now! It's almost impossible to get further into his mind when he's screaming about it being cold! Would one of you jump in already!?! He's drowning!"  
  
Brad managed to jump in first, but it took both him and Ken, and Schuldich mentally telling them where to go, to find and free him. When they dragged him out of the lake, it had only been about a minute since he fell in, but Ran was already unconscious, and shaking uncontrollably.  
  
Brad wrapped his jacket around the smaller man's shaking shoulders and picked him up. "I'm taking him back to the house," he said. No one else said anything, but they all followed him back to Villa White.  
  
After getting Ran dried off, the other seven assassins tried to get him warm.  
  
"Well, what do you suggest?" Yohji asked, when his idea about wrapping Ran in blankets was disregarded. Nagi suggested that they put him in a hot bath. "But we just got him dry, and now you want to get him wet again?"  
  
"We'll go with Yohji's suggestion," Brad declared as he walked into the room. "It will get him warm and we won't have to worry about drying Ran off again. Besides, the water would eventually get cold, and then we'll have to deal with it all over again."  
  
So, they wrapped Ran in as many blankets as they could spare, and Omi went down to make coffee and hot cocoa while they waited for an to wake up. When he came back upstairs, Schuldich informed them that Ran would be waking up shortly. He had gone into the younger man's mind to see how he was doing mentally, and had felt him beginning to wake up. Omi went back downstairs to make another cup of hot cocoa for Ran.  
  
"Ran? Ran, wake up." At the sound of the soft voice calling him, Ran struggled to wake up. __ What? Who is that? Kouga's never that nice, and the voice is too deep to be Kaasan's . . . __  
  
__ Who's Kouga? __ The voice seemed so familiar that Ran didn't bother to wonder why he didn't remember hearing the words out loud.  
  
__ He's Kaasan's husband. __ Ran replied, mentally. He found it strange that he was talking without using his voice, but the other voice in his head was so familiar, and comforting.  
  
Unfortunately, the answer he gave surprised Schuldich so much that the German man responded out loud. "You mean your father, right?"  
  
One violet eye opened slowly before Ran answered. "Not exactly. What happened?" he groaned, feeling the weight of thirteen blankets, and a sore area around his waist. He also had a headache and the beginning of a sore throat.  
  
"You fell into the lake, and some kind of rope got wrapped around your waist. Don't worry, we got you out!" Everyone in the room looked at Ken, some raising their eyebrows questioningly.  
  
"Of course we did!" Yohji was the first to overcome his disbelief. "How else could he be in here and not at the bottom of the lake? Baka." Ran gave a contented smile and fell back to sleep, clutching the cocoa mug in one hand, and Schuldich's hand in the other.  
  
~~  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"Schuldich, don't you even start that again!"  
  
"Can I drive?"  
  
"No."  
  
"But I know how!"  
  
"I don't care, Yohji."  
  
"Bra~ad! Quit being so mean!"  
  
"Then quit acting so stupid!"  
  
"ACHOO!"  
  
"Bless you."  
  
"Achoo!"  
  
"Bless you."  
  
"Hey, that sneeze was smaller!"  
  
"So what?"  
  
"So did you try and make it smaller?"  
  
"How do you bake a sdeeze sballer?"  
  
"Do you want some more cough syrup Ran?"  
  
"Nagi, if you give him any more of that, you'll kill him."  
  
"How? It's not poison."  
  
"He'll OD on cough syrup! That would be a first!" Schuldich and Yohji both started laughing, unable to stop even when both Ran and Brad directed glares of death their way.  
  
~~  
  
"I'm HUNGRY!"  
  
"You should have eaten more at breakfast."  
  
"I DID eat a lot! You told me not to stuff myself!"  
  
"If you ate so much already, how can you be hungry now?"  
  
"It's been seven hours already. A break would be nice."  
  
"Yohji, look! We've got the chibis on our side!"  
  
"Please can we stop?"  
  
"And Kenken!"  
  
"Why do you want to stop?"  
  
"I have to go to the bathroom. And I DID go before we left, I just drank a lot of milk this morning . . . and I finished my water bottle."  
  
"Ken! That thing holds an entire gallon!"  
  
"That's why we need to stop! I've got a gallon of water inside me, and it wants out, NOW!"  
  
~~  
  
A rest stop, a McDonald's, and three hours later, the van (and trailer) pulled in behind the flower shop.  
  
"It doesn't look different," Ken commented, looking at the shop. The only real difference that could be seen from outside was that the windows had gotten bigger.  
  
"We'll go inside and see what's different before bringing our stuff in," Brad said. The others nodded their agreement, and they all walked up the stairs and into the apartments. And then stopped.  
  
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!! WHERE'D THE LIVING ROOM GO?!?!?!" Ken screamed. All the walls in the apartment area had been torn down, and there were flower arrangements everywhere. The apartment part of the Koneko had been turned into an extension of the flower shop.  
  
"Hello, Weiss. Welcome back," Manx said as she walked up to the eight dumbfounded assassins. "Abyssinian, what happened to you?"  
  
Ran was bundled up in a blanket and wearing pants and a sweatshirt, and was still shivering. "Schuldich accidentally pushed be into de lake," he informed her, his voice thick from the cold.  
  
"Hanae, what's going on here?" Schuldich asked Manx. "Where are we supposed to live now?"  
  
"Don't call me that, Mastermind. You will be living next door. We bought that shop about four and a half months ago for this purpose. Both floors have been converted into rooms to make a two-story house. You will each have your own rooms, and there are living rooms on both floors," Manx explained. "All of your things are in the rooms you expressed a desire to have. Farfarello, Omi, and Nagi, you told me you didn't care, so the three of you will be on the ground floor with Ken. If you don't like the room you were given, talk it out with each other, and see if someone will trade you. Enjoy." Then she walked out the door.  
  
"Well, I guess this means it's time for us to go next door," Yohji said, stating the obvious. Ran led the way over and they each found their rooms. The downstairs had a kitchen, dining room, living room, and four bedrooms. The front door opened into the living room/dining room. To the left was the kitchen, and to the right were three of the bedrooms. Straight ahead was the staircase, and to the left of that was the fourth bedroom. Farfarello had the room next to the stairs, Ken had the one nearest the front door, Nagi had the one next to it, and Omi was across the way from Farfarello. Each room had it's own bathroom. At the top of the stairs was another living room with a door at each corner. To the right of the stairs were Ran and Brad's rooms, and to the left were Yohji and Schuldich's. Between Ran and Brad's rooms was a bathroom, and between Schuldich and Yohji's rooms was another.  
  
They spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting things set up to their preferences. By the end of the day, everything was unpacked, and the house looked almost lived in. Everyone went to their respective rooms at about 11:30 that night. Instead of crawling into bed like his body was telling him to, Ran curled up on the window seat (each of the upstairs bedrooms had one) and watched the sky. He knew that something Schuldich had said earlier was important, but his cold was making it difficult to think straight. All he could remember was tat it had something to do with a familiar name; one that he wasn't supposed to know.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: Is it still decent? I know, it was another slow chapter, but things should get going again soon. Sorry for the spelling mistakes in the previous chapters. I'm trying to spell things right, but the computer I'm using doesn't have the kind of keyboard I'm used to, so my fingers are a bit confused as to where to go. I don't type, I search and peck, making writing this thing on a different keyboard a little difficult. Please review and let me know what you think so far. Please don't flame unless you absolutely have to. Thanks! ^^ 


	6. Relationships and Realizations

A/N: First off, thanks to ALL who reviewed, it's so nice to be liked! ^^ That means thanks to Naruka, ln1, ranma, Chang Wumei (I'm glad you like it, but I'm not sure if it will stay BradRan. That's just the Pairing my muses were headed toward. They may change their minds.), and Anime the Fallen Angel. If you guys keep reviewing like this, I'll have this story done in a week! There are only supposed to be 10 chapters (according to my VAGUE outline) and I've already done 5! Thanks all of you!  
  
"Speaking"  
  
__ Thought Speech __ (usually initiated by Schu)  
  
'Thoughts/Thinking'  
  
~~  
  
"Where'd you put it?!?"  
  
"Put what?"  
  
"My HAT!" (A/N: I love the hat he wears in Gluhen; beats his bandana/headband)  
  
"I would never stoop so low as to touch that disgusting piece of- "  
  
"Don't finish that sentence, Yohji."  
  
"Ran? YOU'RE sticking up for him and that hat?"  
  
"Yes. You have a cross painted on your chest; Schuldich has a hat."  
  
" . . . "  
  
~~  
  
It had been a few weeks since the newer - and larger - Weiss had moved into their new home, and everyone was still trying to find their place in the group. There had been a few fights, another underwear incident, and a coffee incident that no one was willing to talk about. All in all, though, they had merged nicely. The problems that arose were problems that anyone could expect with eight young men living together.  
  
Schuldich had unconsciously begun to feel protective of Ran, asking if he was okay, making sure he had had enough to eat, and glaring at Brad every time the older man looked at Ran. Ran had noticed the treatment, but instead of fighting it, he found it nice to be taken care of. His mother had been the only one to really do that, and even she stopped when Ran reached High School.  
  
The others were all acting like themselves, including Farfarello, who had made it a game to chase Ken around the house with an eggbeater. At 7:00 in the morning. Ken had begun to leave his room later in the day, or before Farf woke up. Not that he was avoiding him; he just didn't appreciate starting the day screaming, and getting screamed at. Brad started every morning by stooping the chase and reading the paper. Schuldich and Yohji both started their day at noon by eating 'breakfast'.  
  
Omi and Nagi both woke up around 8:oo in the morning, and on weekdays, got ready for school. If there was no school, they usually took the morning shift at the flower shop. All of the ex-Schwarz members worked in the shop, even Farfie, although he usually stayed out of the customers' sight.  
  
__ Hey, Rannie? What's wrong? __  
  
"Stay out of my head, Schuldich."  
  
"I figured you would be more willing to let me know if you didn't have to say it in front of others."  
  
"I don't *have* to say it at all."  
  
"That's true. But I was hoping you would be willing to tell me anyway."  
  
"Maybe later." Ran sighed, and headed next door for his shift in the flower shop. Schu was the only one that Ran was really willing to talk to. If Ran asked, he would stay out of his head, and he really seemed to listen and care. 'A perfect psychologist,' Ran thought cynically.  
  
~~  
  
That evening, Schuldich decided to check up on Ran, and see if he was ready to talk yet. When he opened the door, he saw Ran sitting in the window seat, trying to stop crying. Schuldich pushed the door closed behind him as he walked over to the smaller man.  
  
"Rannie? What's wrong?" He asked softly, wrapping his arms around him.  
  
"N- Nothing. I'm f- fine," Ran stuttered, desperately swiping at his eyes.  
  
"Of course you are," Schuldich said, gently. "Because everyone knows that people cry when they're fine. It's when they smile that you have reason to worry." He looked down at Ran, who had hidden his face in his hands. "Come on, why don't you tell me what's going on? It might make you feel better."  
  
"I just m- miss them. K- Kaasan, and Aya, and even . . . even Kouga," Ran sobbed. He had his head lowered, so he missed the look of pain and guilt that crossed the German's face.  
  
"Could you tell me something, Ran?" Schuldich asked, tipping Ran's tear- streaked face up so that their eyes would meet. Ran gave made a sound that Schuldich took as a request to continue, so he did. "Why do you call him Kouga? I asked you before if he was your father, and you didn't give a real answer." Ran lowered his head again, and leaned against Schuldich.  
  
"He and my mother were married when I was born," Ran said, his tears beginning to stop. "But he isn't my real father." Schuldich was about to ask what he meant, but Ran was able to continue without prompting. "She had an affair less than a year after they were married. The guy was this Japanese/German man with two kids of his own. I don't know his name, but his last name was Kitada."  
  
Schuldich's eyes bugged out when he heard the name, and his hold on Ran's still-trembling shoulders tightened momentarily. 'Kitada? How many Japanese/German Kitada families could there be? Hanae might remember if this has something to do with Papa. I'll ask her next time I see her.' Out loud he said, "Is that why you were called a . . . um . . . "  
  
"Bastard?" Ran finished, talking into Schuldich's chest. "Yeah. Kouga claimed me as his on the birth certificate, but he never let me forget that I wasn't really his. He would always say stuff like that, even when I was too little to understand the words. He even tried to make Aya hate me at one point." Ran laughed softly at the memory. "She told him that nothing he could say would make her hate me. By that point, she loved me more than Kaasan did. And then . . . " Ran buried his head in Schuldich's chest, trying to keep from crying again. Schuldich looked down at him, then lifted him and re-situated him so that Ran was sitting in his lap. The smaller man looked up at him questioningly, and Schuldich gave him a small grin.  
  
"It's easier to hold you like this, and if you're going to keep talking to me, I need a good grip on you." Ran accepted the excuse and laid his head on Schuldich's shoulder. Within a few minutes, however, he had fallen asleep, clutching Schuldich's shirt in both fists. "Wore yourself out already? You must've been crying for awhile before I came in here," he whispered, standing up and walking over to Ran's bed. He lay the sleeping man down gently, and tucked him in. Before leaving the room, he whispered a soft "goodnight" and kissed Ran's forehead. Ran smiled slightly in his sleep, and turned somewhat so that he was facing Schuldich's retreating form.  
  
~~  
  
"I don't care Hanae, I need to talk to you. Now."  
  
"Schuldich, this is going to have to wait. I'm very busy right now, and I can't just leave because you say you need to talk."  
  
"But it could concern our little brother!" Schuldich could hear the woman suck in her breath. It wasn't easy to surprise her, but apparently that comment had.  
  
"Where did you say you wanted to make?"  
  
Schuldich smiled, knowing that soon he would have answers. "In the coffee shop a few streets down from the flower shop. Meet me there in fifteen minutes?"  
  
"Wait for me, and I should be there in, at most, half an hour."  
  
~~  
  
Less than twenty minutes later saw Schuldich and Hanae both at the coffee shop. The woman codenamed Manx looked a little upset, but she got straight to business. "What do you mean 'our little brother'?" she asked, watching Schuldich closely.  
  
"Just tell me a few things first, and I'll let you know, okay?" Schuldich looked imploringly at his older sister, and finally she conceded. "Did our father ever . . . get with a married woman?"  
  
Manx looked at her brother, fighting disgust. "What kind of question is that?" she demanded.  
  
"Just answer."  
  
"Maybe once or twice. When are you asking about?"  
  
"About twenty years ago. When you were four."  
  
"Yes, I think he did." She didn't miss the smug, and proud, look on his face. "Will you tell me what's going on now?"  
  
"We have a younger half-brother."  
  
"What's his name? Or do you need more questions answered before you tell me?"  
  
"I only needed those answered because I wasn't sure. Now I am." Manx raised her eyebrows as if to say 'Well . . . ?'. Her eyes widened in surprise when Schuldich smirked and answered her question. "His name is Fujimiya Ran."  
  
~~  
  
A/N: Okay people, you know the deal. Please review and tell me if you like, hate it, or if you've had Ramen Noodles in the past week. I have a craving for them right now. v.v;; But don't worry about the almost-cliffhanger. If you notice the two little dates at the top of the story, you'll see that I'll more than likely be updating tomorrow, or Friday at the latest.  
  
Schu: If you tell them that, what's the point of making a cliffhanger?  
  
Elfsong: I didn't make the cliffhanger. You guys did.  
  
Ran: Us?  
  
Elf: Uh-huh! *nods head* You're my muses for this story!  
  
Ran and Schu: *looks at each other* That's a scary thought.  
  
Elf: Is not! *pout*  
  
Ran: Please review Elf's story. If you do . . . um . . .  
  
Elf: If you give your email address I'll send you a cookie!  
  
Schu: . . . *sweatdrop* Whatever . . . just please review. 


	7. A Shocking Event

A/N: Hey! Thanks for the reviews! I know it hasn't been long, but my muses decided that I had to write more immediately.  
  
"Talking"  
  
'Thinking'  
  
__ Telepathy __  
  
~~  
  
At first, Ran didn't know why he felt so secure and comfortable. It had been a long time since he had woken up with those feelings. Then he remembered spending three hours crying (A/N: Yes, that's possible, I've done it before), and Schuldich coming in after those three hours and holding him. He also recalled falling asleep in Schu's lap, and blushed. 'I hope he doesn't bring that up in front of the others,' Ran thought, getting up and stretching.  
  
After taking a shower and getting dressed, he headed downstairs for breakfast. Omi and Nagi were both bent over a laptop, discussing homework, and Brad was reading the paper while he drank his coffee. However, when Ran walked in, he looked up and smiled. "Good morning," he greeted, getting a cup of juice for Ran. The redhead tilted his head slightly and looked at him. "I've been told that you don't drink coffee, and I know I saw you drinking this juice yesterday," Brad explained, handing the glass to Ran, who took it with a nod of thanks. "Oh. Schuldich seemed to think you would be looking for him his morning, and asked me to tell you that he was heading out for the day. It must have been important for him to get out of bed at 5:00 this morning."  
  
"Thank you," Ran mumbled, his sleep-clogged voice still making it hard to get much louder than that. He sat with Brad and the chibis until 8:00, when he, Yohji, and Ken had to go next door for the morning shift at the shop.  
  
~~  
  
"Ran is our brother?" Manx asked, her voice betraying her disbelief.  
  
"Yep. His real father was a man named Kitada, who had two children at the time of Ran's birth," Schuldich confirmed.  
  
"And I'm the one who introduced him to Kritiker. He'll hate me when he finds out. I led my own baby brother to a life as an assassin," Manx whispered, putting her head in her hands.  
  
"You think that's bad? Brad, Farf, and I were the ones that rigged the bombs in the Fujimiya house. We were already working for Takatori, and I would have never guessed that I would be destroying my brother's life," Schuldich moaned.  
  
"So, do you plan on telling him?" Manx asked.  
  
"Why wouldn't I? He may hate me for what I did to his mother and sister, but he deserves to know that he *does* still have family alive."  
  
~~  
  
"If you're not buying anything, get out!"  
  
"Ran, haven't you learned yet? Your little speech only encourages them," Yohji informed the redhead. All the girls in the shop giggled and pressed in closer.  
  
"No; what encourages them is your flirting," Ran corrected.  
  
"Well, at least I accept their adoration. You're so cruel! Leading them on, letting them believe they have a chance, and then yelling at them to leave the shop!"  
  
"And how is what you do so much better?"  
  
"I make it clear that I only date girls over eighteen. And even then, there are no guarantees that the relationship will last."  
  
"What relationship?" Ken asked as he entered the front room. "You never last more than three days with any one girl."  
  
All the girls in the shop giggled happily; there were three of the original guys working at that moment. Unfortunately for them, it was about time for school to start, so they all headed out.  
  
~~  
  
"All right. Yes, sir. I'll be right there." Manx grimaced as she closed the cell phone.  
  
"Mission?" Schuldich asked.  
  
"Yes. I'm going to go get the paperwork."  
  
"Would you mind if I came with you?"  
  
"Not at all."  
  
~~  
  
"Come on! Come on!" Brad looked up from his laptop and glanced across the room at the Irishman. Farfarello was sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, playing Super Monkey Ball on their new Gamecube. Apparently, the baby monkey wouldn't stay on the path, because every once in awhile, Farf would tip his body one way or the other. Feeling Brad's eyes on him, Farf looked up and grinned, his eyes sparkling happily.  
  
"Where's your eye patch?"  
  
"I didn't want to wear it today. The other kitties have seen me without it, so until we have a mission there's no point to wear it." **  
  
"That makes sense," Brad said, nodding unconsciously, and returned his attention to the paper.  
  
~~  
  
"When do you plan on telling him?"  
  
"When we get back from the mission. There's no reason to tell him now. In fact, telling him before the mission would do more arm than good."  
  
"How so?" Manx asked, finally looking over to Schuldich, who was draped across the passenger seat in her car.  
  
"He would have his mind on what I told him instead of the mission. He could get hurt if he doesn't pay attention."  
  
"That makes sense. I'm going to the shop. Would you get everyone from the house and tell them to come to the missions room?"  
  
"Okay."  
  
~~  
  
"So is everyone in?" Manx asked later that afternoon. It was a routine mission for Weiss. Persia had decided no to give them a more difficult one at the moment, because they were still getting used to the idea of having seven other people, instead of only three.  
  
Manx looked around the room, waiting for an answer. Omi, Nagi, Farfarello, and Brad nodded. The others vocalized their feelings.  
  
"Of course!" Ken exclaimed.  
  
"There aren't any girls involved, but it would be fun to have Schwarz's talents on our side. I'm in." Yohji answered.  
  
Schuldich smirked. "How could anyone resist a mission this easy?"  
  
Ran nodded his head and told her yes before reaching out his hand for the paperwork that always came with the missions. As she handed it to him, Manx suddenly felt that it was a bad idea to let Ran go on the mission that night. 'Don't be stupid!'  
  
__ Who are you talking to? __ She felt the voice ask in her mind.  
  
__ Myself, __ she answered.  
  
__ And why would you not wanting little Rannie here to go be stupid? __ Schuldich continued the conversation in the woman's mind.  
  
__ Because I know he can take care of himself. All of a sudden, after finding out that I'm related to him, I don't want to let him go. It's just stupid. __  
  
__ Actually, when you think about it, it's kind of nice to know that you care about family so much. And he's only half-family that we only learned about today! __  
  
When their conversation stopped, Manx looked up to see a frown on Ran's face. "If you two are done, I would like to know when and where we are supposed to go?" The way he said it made Schuldich and Manx realize it was more than likely not the first time he had asked.  
  
"Sorry about that! I needed to tell her something, and didn't want young ears to hear it!" Schu exclaimed, giving the best reason he could without lying to his brother or letting him know the real reason. Ran managed a small smirk in Schuldich'' direction before returning his attention to the Kritiker agent.  
  
"You should leave tonight around 9:00, the paperwork should tell you where. Good luck Weiss." And with that, she turned and left the building.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: Before I get too far and forget that I made a note earlier, in Gluhen, Farf doesn't where an eye patch, proving my theory that he only wore it to creep people out! So in this, the eye patch is part of his mission wardrobe. Okay, back to the story!  
  
~~  
  
"Abyssinian, Siberian has spotted the target; he's heading towards you." Omi informed Ran over the comm. link.  
  
"Hn." Ran replied to #1: let the younger boy know he heard, and #2: he knew that if he didn't respond, Omi would send in backup whether he wanted it or not. Ran waited in the shadows for the target to come into view. Unfortunately, he had met a group of people between the time that Ken had seen him and when Ran saw him.  
  
Ran mentally revised his battle strategy to fit with having to kill seven people instead of just the one. As soon as he had it set in his mind, he charged the group of men. He managed to kill the initial target immediately, but after that point, the others began to put up a fight. There were only three left when Ran saw the gun. One of the three apparently was a bodyguard. Ran cursed himself for not realizing it sooner.  
  
"Bombay! I need backup, now!" he growled into the link as he turned on the man with the gun. Before he could attack, though, he felt a searing pain in his shoulders and upper back. He stumbled slightly, but managed to kill his attacker before either of his opponents could get in another attack.  
  
That left him with one opponent, a sore back, a headache, and slightly blurred vision. The last man raised a large board and headed toward Ran, whose only thought was, 'why'd he drop the gun?'. The man swung the board, the same thing that had been used on Ran by the other man, and hit him square in the face. Ran fell backwards, and was barely conscious enough to see the man drop the board and pull his gun from his pocket. 'Well, that's a dangerous place to hide a gun,' Ran thought, drowsily.  
  
He watched in a haze as the man aimed the gun at his chest. Ran couldn't have put up a fight even if he wanted to. He watched as the man's finger tightened on the trigger of the gun.  
  
~~  
  
"Bombay! I need backup, now!" When Omi heard Ran's growl he immediately switched the link so that he could communicate with all six of the other assassins. It was rare for Ran to request backup and even more rare for him to demand it. Whatever it was must have been bad.  
  
"Everyone who can get to him, Abyssinian needs backup immediately." Omi could hear Schuldich cursing, and knew that the telepath would be the first to reach Ran. And, according to their various responses, and how each of their fights were going, Yohji would be right behind him.  
  
~~  
  
Schuldich's heart almost stopped when he heard that Ran was in trouble. He started cursing his own lack of attention and headed to the area Ran had been assigned to. He stumbled on the stairs as he neared the room, still cursing himself, Manx, and anyone who dared put a hand on his brother. He threw the door open just in time to see a man standing over his bloody younger brother, finger tightening on a gun trained at the braided man.  
  
~~  
  
/// BANG \\\  
  
/// BANG \\\  
  
~~  
  
"Where was he hit?"  
  
"Stomach, I think."  
  
"Can't you go into his mind and find out?"  
  
"I already tried! He's too disoriented! If I concentrate too much with him in this state, he'll die!"  
  
As Schuldich had entered the room, the man had pulled the trigger, but lost his concentration. He missed his target - Ran's head - and hit somewhere in his torso instead. Seeing Ran get shot made Schuldich pull out his own gun and shoot the man. Yohji arrived moments later and helped Schuldich assess Ran's wounds as best they could. They had quickly realized he needed immediate medical attention, and Yohji had contacted Omi, telling him to get the van around, and to let Kritiker's hospital know they were on their way. While Yohji was busy with that, Schuldich gently lifted Ran into his arms and headed to the exit.  
  
They had arrived at the hospital to find Manx, distraught and pacing, waiting for them. When she saw Schuldich carrying Ran in, everyone saw her fighting sobs. She managed to keep herself under control, though. "What happened?" she asked.  
  
"From what we understand," Schuldich said as he laid Ran on a stretcher, "he was outnumbered seven to one. He waited too long to call for backup and was hit in the head. When I got to the room, the seventh man shot him." They had all been following the stretcher, but at that moment, they reached an area that no one else was allowed in. As soon as the stretcher was out of sight, Manx broke down crying, and, after a few seconds, Schuldich began to cry softly as well.  
  
~~  
  
Five hours later, a doctor walked into the waiting room and headed toward Weiss and Manx. Schuldich shot up the moment he saw the doctor, as he had done for every doctor that had entered the room since Ran had been taken away. The others had gotten so used to his jumps in the past five hours that most didn't even open their eyes.  
  
"Are you here for Fujimiya-san?" the doctor asked, looking at Schuldich. The telepath nodded dumbly before finding his voice.  
  
"Is- how is he?" Schuldich asked, worry clear on his face.  
  
"Come with me, please," the doctor requested. The eight worried Kritiker agents followed the man into a good-sized, white room. The one bed was holding their teammate. Ran was hooked to - in their eyes - a million machines. There was a machine to keep him breathing, and machine for his brain waves, and a machine that seemed to be keeping his heart pumping. Surrounded by the machines, tubes, and wires, Ran looked tiny.  
  
"Doctor? Why is he hooked to all those machines?" Omi asked, staring at his friend in shock.  
  
"We ran some tests, and, according to your story and the injuries on his body, we have concluded that he was hit in the back of the head by a large, blunt object, probably the same board that was used to hit him in the face. He was shot in the chest; thankfully the bullet missed all his vital organs. At the moment, Fujimiya-san is in a coma. Due to the blows to the head, it is highly unlikely that, should he wake up at all, he will have no lasting problems."  
  
"What do you mean?" Schuldich managed to ask in a choked whisper.  
  
"If he wakes up, it is almost guaranteed that he will have brain damage. However, it is highly unlikely that he will wake up in the first place."  
  
~~  
  
A/N: *sobs* How could I do that to Ran? *glares at muses* How could you make me do that to Ran?!?!?  
  
Ran: Don't blame us! I'm the one you put in a coma!  
  
Schu: Which is actually kind of ironic.  
  
Elf: *sniffle* How so?  
  
Schu: In the series, wasn't it his sister in the never-ending coma?  
  
Ran: That's cruel irony.  
  
Schu: Hey, if you guys review, she'll probably find some way to brig him out of the coma! *whispers to self* Even if he is a vegetable afterwards . . .  
  
Ran: I don't want to be a vegetable!  
  
Elf: *dries eyes* Well anyways, please review and let me know what you've thought of this chapter, and what you've thought of the story so far. Thanks! 


	8. Memories

A/N: Hey all! Thanks to Anime the Fallen Angel, Seraph1, Lady Jam, Naruka, and gonyos for all the wonderful reviews. I think that I've decided, at least for this fic, that I won't have any romantic relationships. That's just not where I want to go with this one. And no one's had ANY Raman lately? How sad . . . Oh well. Okay, here's the story!  
  
"Speech"  
  
'Thoughts'  
  
__ Telepathy __  
  
~~  
  
"Papa? When is Lanen coming back?" the small girl asked her father, her two- year-old brother standing next to her.  
  
"I'm not sure. Do you miss her?" the man questioned, smiling affectionately at his small children. It was really too bad Lanen was married; the kids got along with her famously, and she was so much fun to be around. She hadn't been by in almost three months, and he was beginning to worry.  
  
As if summoned by their thoughts, the woman walked into the room. She seemed to be positively glowing. Her blue eyes were bright with joy, but he was able to detect a hint of sadness there, as well.  
  
"Lanen?" the little boy called to her.  
  
"What is it, Schu?" she asked, walking over to give the child a hug.  
  
"Why ith your tummy big?" the boy's green eyes were opened wide in confusion. "Did you bring thomething?"  
  
"Sort of," Lanen laughed, her hands unconsciously moving to her rounded stomach. "I need to talk to your papa alone for a little while, okay? I'll come play with you when we're done."  
  
"But what'th in there?" the boy persisted.  
  
"Schuldich! She has to talk to Papa! Be good!" the little girl admonished her brother. The orange-haired boy hung his head, but brought it back up when Lanen told him that she would tell him the reason later.  
  
After the adults had finished their conversation, Lanen came back to the living room, where the children were playing quietly. "Hey guys," she said softly, calling the children's attention to herself. "You wanted to know what's hiding in there?" she asked, stifling a laugh at Schuldich's emphatic nod. She lean4ed in and whispered, "It's a baby!"  
  
"But . . . why is it in your tummy?" The little girl asked, her face scrunched in confusion.  
  
"Because, that's where it grows until it's ready to be a baby."  
  
"Like the rooth?"  
  
"The roos? Oh, yes, a little like kangaroos."  
  
__ Baby? Are you in there? __  
  
"Schuldich? What are you doing, Sweetie?"  
  
"Talking to the baby."  
  
__ Guess what? I'm going to be your older brother! And, I'll share Hanae with you. She's a good sister. __ **  
  
"Schuldich? Schuldich, wake up," Lanen whispered.  
  
"I am . . . " he mumbled.  
  
"Schu, wake up!" Schuldich opened his eyes and looked around. He was in a white room, sitting in a very uncomfortable chair. Upon further inspection, he realized he had fallen asleep next to Ran's hospital bed. Again.  
  
It had been about two months since the mission had put Ran in the hospital, and the doctors had lost hope that he would wake up. His teammates came to visit him at least every other day, but Schuldich came to visit every day, and would stay for hours. He had stopped sleeping at the apartment, and could only manage to get any sleep when he could hear Ran's even - if shallow - breathing.  
  
Schuldich shook his head, trying to clear away the sleep haze. What had his dream been about again? Oh yeah, his first 'conversation' with his baby brother. Ran's mother, Lanen, had come over and announced her pregnancy, and Schuldich had used his gift to talk directly to the unborn baby. Funny, he hadn't even remembered that until dreaming it.  
  
"Schuldich? Come on, you need a shower," Yohji told him, grabbing his arm and pulling the unresisting telepath to his feet and towards the door. "You don't want Ran to wake up just to pass out from your smell, do you?"  
  
~~  
  
"Schuldich! What is your problem?"  
  
Schuldich growled threateningly at Ken, knowing the soccer player was worried, too, but unable to stop his anger. "I'm worried about him! It's been two months and he hasn't so much as twitched! He hates being touched, but he doesn't change even when those idiot nurses give him a bath!" Schuldich screamed, taking his frustration out on the younger man.  
  
"I know that! It bothers me, too! But you act like you'll die if he doesn't get better in the next hour!"  
  
"You would too if it was your baby brother in there!" All the movement in the room stopped at Schuldich's announcement. It suddenly became so quiet that the assassins could hear the curtains moving slightly in the wind.  
  
"Ran's your brother?" Yohji asked softly, breaking the silence. Schuldich rubbed a hand across his face, and when he pulled it away, the others saw tears on his cheeks.  
  
"Yeah," he choked out, looking at the picture of the original Weiss hanging on the wall.** I was almost three when he was born, and Hanae had been five for a few months."  
  
"Hanae?" Yohji asked, shocked. "You mean Manx?"  
  
"Strange, huh? Yeah, Manx is my older sister, and Ran is our younger half- brother."  
  
"Then why did you spend so much time trying to kill him?" Omi asked.  
  
"I only started suspecting we were related the day before the mission. I talked to Manx a few hours before the mission, and that confirmed it. I was planning to tell him when we got back here."  
  
~~  
  
"He'th gonna be a baby thoon," Schuldich told the young woman in front of him.  
  
"What do you mean, Schu? He's still got a month and a half before he'll be ready," Lanen told him, still confused as to how the child had known the baby was a boy before the first sonogram.  
  
"No," the boy corrected. "He'th almotht ready."  
  
~~  
  
"Why should I care?" Schuldich asked, blowing smoke into his friend's face. Yohji just smiled sadly and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's been three months, and he's still no closer to waking up! If he's going to yell at me about smoking and drinking he'll have to wake up for it, won't he?" Schuldich smirked triumphantly at his own logic. Ran always yelled at them about smoking and drinking, so if he did those things, his brother was sure to wake up to yell at him. Yohji just gave him another sad smile and hauled him to his feet.  
  
"Come on, the doctors will yell at you if you keep smoking in here. Besides, I don't think cigarette smoke is good for him. I mean, he's just barely breathing on his own. When you're done smoking we'll come back." Schu nodded dumbly and allowed Yohji to drag him out of the room.  
  
Ever since that first dream a month ago, Schuldich had been having flashbacks of Lanen's pregnancy. He had predicted the baby was going to be a boy, and he was right. No one had believed him when he had told them that he had asked the baby. Schuldich had also predicted that the baby would be born premature. He had been right again; Ran was born just over a month early. After he was born, though, Schuldich only got to see Ran once.  
  
~~  
  
"I'm sorry, but Kouga wants me at home with Ran. Besides, he was willing to accept Ran as his own," Lanen said, watching carefully as Hanae and Schuldich played with the infant. Neither was willing to pick the newborn up, but they were petting him, and giggling when he would grab their fingers in his tiny fists.  
  
"You really believe he'll accept Ran? I hope for the baby's sake that he does. Ran's life could be miserable if he doesn't." The redheaded man was also watching the three children, wishing they could be able to grow up together. "If that's what you want, though, I'll leave. I can take the kids back to Germany; their grandmother would be thrilled to see them again."  
  
Lanen saw him glance wistfully at his infant son, knowing that he wanted to be a part of the child's life. "It's not that I want you to leave, it's just that I want Ran to have a normal childhood, and knowing that the man he calls 'father' isn't his real father just isn't normal. I'm sorry." Lanen turned to the three children and bent down next to them. "Hey guys. I'm going to take Ran now, okay?" she informed them, picking her son up. When she reached the door, she turned back and smiled sadly at the three people she was throwing out of her life; the three people she was throwing out of her son's life. "Goodbye," she called before leaving.  
  
~~  
  
After another week, they got their first mission since Ran had been hurt. It involved all seven of them, and no one was willing to turn the mission down. All of them were afraid that if they did, another of their group would end up in the hospital, or worse.  
  
The mission started easily. None of the guards noticed them, and they managed to sneak into the building. Schuldich couldn't help but feel that something was off, though. He felt as though he wasn't supposed to be there; none of them were. He shrugged the feeling off as he noticed the target moving toward his hiding spot.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: No one really knows what little kids think, so there's no guarantee that two-year-olds are unable to form complete sentences in their minds. Besides, I'm taking another liberty with being the authoress and saying that Schu had his telepathy at the age of two, and both he and Hanae were mature for children their ages. Also, the picture Schuldich noticed is the one that's shown in episode twenty-five. Remember that one? It had the four guys, and it was sitting on the counter, or a tabletop, or something like that. It was at the end of the episode. Well, here it was blown up and hung on a wall. Oh, and don't worry, I'm not through with this chapter yet, I just didn't want to forget this.  
  
~~  
  
"Schu?" the tiny voice called softly. When the person received no answer, he began to whimper. "Schu? Where are you? Schu, please . . . don't leave me alone . . . " After crying for a few minutes, the figure collapsed back onto the pillow and fell asleep.  
  
~~  
  
"Mastermind! Behind you!" Brad yelled, pulling Schuldich back to where he was. He shot the man who had been about to attack him, then turned to Brad.  
  
__ Thanks. __  
  
__ Where were you? __ the American asked.  
  
__ I just got this feeling. It was like someone was calling me. __  
  
__ Any ideas who? __  
  
__ It felt like Ran. __ The clairvoyant raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.  
  
The mission ended shortly after their exchange, and the seven assassins trudged home. As soon as they finished getting clean, they headed to the hospital to visit Ran. When they got there, they were surprised to find him on his side; the staff always laid him on his back. There were also drying tear tracks on his cheeks.  
  
"Rannie?" Schuldich called softly. Receiving no answer, he tried again, only mentally. __ Rannie? Are you in there? __  
  
__ Schu? __ All seven faces lit up when they saw Ran stir slightly. __ Where were you? Why'd you leave me alone? __  
  
__ Sorry, Rannie. I was in the middle of a mission. __  
  
__ Okay . . . what happened? This . . . doesn't feel like home. __ Schuldich could feel the confusion radiating off of him.  
  
__ If you wake up for me real quick, then I'll tell you tomorrow. __  
  
"And if I don't?" Ran croaked, struggling to open his eyes. Schuldich smiled as tears ran down his face. "Why are you . . . ?"  
  
"I'm just glad you're finally awake. And, if you didn't, I was just going to wait another week or two." Ran smiled as he fell back to sleep, his energy drained already. Schuldich brushed his bangs out of his face, and promised to tell him the whole story when he woke up.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: How was that? He's not a comatose veggie anymore! And I figured this was a nicer cliffy than last time. Let me know what you think of this chappie, or the story in general! It's still fun to write, so I'm still planning to finish it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it! ^^ BTW, I thought a young Schuldich with a lisp would be adorable! 


	9. Revealing the Past

A/N: Thanks to ln1, ranma, Anime the Fallen Angel, Chang Wumei, Aymeleh, and Lady Jam for the reviews. If anyone reviewed chapter six (and left their email), but didn't get a cookie, please email me and let me know. I know it took awhile to send them out, but I did try to send to everyone who reviewed that chapter.  
  
~~  
  
Schuldich sighed as he looked around the room again. It wasn't a very big room, and it seemed even smaller with all the machines still in it. His gaze drifted to his younger brother, who was sleeping peacefully. Schuldich grimaced at how small he looked. After three months of nothing but an IV, the hospital bed seemed to swallow Ran's diminished form. The already thin redhead had lost even more weight while in his coma.  
  
He was brought out of his musings when he heard a stirring from the bed. He looked down just as one violet eye opened partially. He immediately closed it again, but after a few seconds opened both eyes.  
  
"Morning." Schuldich announced, surprising the smaller man into focusing on him. Ran smiled at him.  
  
"Hi . . . Where am I?"  
  
"You get right to the point, don't you?"  
  
"Yes. Now what happened and where am I?"  
  
"You're in a hospital. I don't know if I want to tell you what happened," Schuldich answered. He could see the Ran's small patience wearing thin.  
  
"Come on, Schuldich! Tell me! You promised," Ran reminded him, trying to give Schuldich a glare, but only succeeded in giving what looked like a pout. It was only the second day since Ran had woken up, but as far as the doctors could tell, there was no brain damage. Schuldich smiled when he remembered their stunned faces at seeing Ran's recovery. "Schu~u!"  
  
Schuldich smiled again. "You know, whining really doesn't suite you," he told Ran.  
  
"And lying doesn't suite you!" Ran shot back. "Now tell me!"  
  
"We~ell . . ." he paused, watching the younger man squirm in impatience. "I will, but first I have to tell you a little family secret." Ran gave him a look that clearly said, 'Get on with it', and Schuldich did. "Um . . . you know how you said your real father's last name was Kitada?" he asked, seeing Ran nod, confused. "That's my father's name, too. When I was two, my father got together with a married woman. She got pregnant, and named the baby Ran. Her husband gave the baby his last name. After you told me about Kouga, I realized that we're brothers." Schuldich watched Ran closely, looking for any sign of a reaction.  
  
"But the man had two children, a girl and a boy."  
  
"Yeah, I have an older sister named Hanae. You know her as Manx."  
  
"What?" Ran's face went from impassive to shock. Then, when he had gotten over the initial shock, he smirked up at Schuldich. "You really need to work on your delivery speech, though."  
  
"Hey, it's not exactly something you practice! Besides, I was planing to tell you right after the mission, but you got hurt. Then the doctors told us you probably wouldn't wake up." Ran accepted the reasoning and leaned back against the pillows.  
  
~~  
  
An hour later, the rest of Weiss, and Manx, had come to visit. They had told Ran of how close they were to Lanen before and during her pregnancy, and how Schuldich had 'talked' to Ran before he was born.  
  
"That explains why your voice in my head seems so familiar," Ran murmured thoughtfully. Then he thought of something else and looked up at his brother questioningly. "But, if you knew that the woman was Lanen, why did you kill her? Why would you murder someone you were that close to?"  
  
The rest of Weiss, even Brad, looked shocked at his question. The original Weiss and Nagi hadn't known that Schwarz was behind the murder of Ran's family, and Brad and Farfarello hadn't known that Schuldich knew anyone in there. The telepath looked down for a moment before looking Ran in the eyes.  
  
"I was mad at her. I couldn't remember her getting pregnant, I didn't remember that until after you were put in a coma, but I remember her leaving us, and that was reason enough to be mad at her, at least at the time. When she left, I was still too young to understand why she was never coming back. I spent a lot of my life thinking that she hated us. Then, when I got old enough - and mature enough - to understand things more, I was just mad that she would let herself become such a major part of our lives, and then walk away. I did it mainly for revenge. I hated Lanen for leaving, and Kouga for taking her away. I didn't even know of Aya until Takatori told us about her, and then I hated her for taking our place. And you, I had no idea who you were. If I had known, I would have fought Esset more, or at least have helped you get back on your feet without making a career of killing people."  
  
"But you couldn't have done that," Farfarello said, trying to lighten the mood.  
  
"Yeah!" Ken agreed, seeing where Farf was going with that train of thought. "Being an assassin is like a family tradition for you guys." Seeing their looks, Ken blushed and tried to explain himself. "Think about it! Manx is a Kritiker agent, and must have killed someone a one point or another, Schuldich tried to kill *us* on more than one occasion, and was working with Schwarz for Esset, and Ran became a member of Weiss. It's like you guys couldn't help but get drawn into it!"  
  
"Not a comforting thought, but they're right," Manx said, nodding towards Ken and Farf. "We do all seem to have gotten ourselves involved in killing people. Even if some of us had no alternative. I'm sorry, Ran."  
  
"Don't say that," Ran ordered, startling everyone with the intensity in his voice. "I had other choices; I just couldn't get revenge if I had chosen them. I did what felt right at the time, and although I have wished I had chosen differently from time to time, I know that I would still chose Kritiker if I had known what I know now."  
  
"Why?" Schuldich asked, causing the others to look at him. "If you knew ahead of time, why would you still have put yourself through all the pain and guilt?"  
  
"I got an even better family out of it." The other eight people in the room were obviously confused as to what he meant, so Ran explained. "I traded a sister, an unfaithful mother, and a cruel father-figure for a caring brother and sister, and a close group of friends. Now if you'll excuse me, the sappiness in that statement is about to make me sick."  
  
~~  
  
"I'm going to bring something in, does anyone else want anything?" Manx asked, pulling on her coat. No one understood how she could stand to wear such a thick coat in September, but they weren't willing to ask either.  
  
"YES!" Manx blinked in surprise before fixing her gaze on her youngest brother.  
  
"They are feeding you, right? They're not forgetting to give you food, are they?" Schu asked, switching from fun-loving pervert to over-protective big brother in a heartbeat.  
  
"Yes, they are feeding me, but hospital food is awful!"  
  
"Ah, come on! It can't be that bad," Yohji tried to reason with him.  
  
"Then you can eat what they bring in here."  
  
"On second thought, it CAN be that bad," Yohji corrected himself, staring out the door as a nurse walked by carrying a plate of . . . something. He looked to Ran to confirm that that was the 'food' they had been talking about and moved away from the door with a gulp. "Manx, are you sure these are Kritiker's doctors?"  
  
"Of course, why?"  
  
"Because, if they're passing that off as food, they're probably assassins undercover trying to kill people by poisoning them."  
  
"Yohji, this is a hospital. I doubt there'll be any targets in a Kritiker hospital."  
  
"Then they're trying to take over the world, one helpless assassin at a time!"  
  
"Huh, I never thought I'd hear the word 'helpless' used to describe an assassin."  
  
"When they're in enough pain to be in a hospital then they probably are helpless!"  
  
"Okay, Yohji. Back to the original topic: Does anyone want something?" Manx asked. She went in search of 'edible food' after receiving eight variations of affirmation.  
  
~~  
  
A week later, Ran was discharged. After an argument-turned-fist fight it was decided that Schuldich and Ken wold go pick him up. The fight was mainly to see who would go with Schuldich. After picking Ran up, they came back to the Koneko and, on the drive, wondered how Ran would survive the mad rush of their fan girls. Al of the girls had been worried when they heard that Ran-san was in the hospital in a coma. In fact, they had bought out most of the shop to send him get well soon gifts. And when they found out that Ran had woken up, the shop had been emptied once again. This time, though, the bouquets were in the braided man's room, and not surrounding his hospital bed.  
  
When they got to the Koneko, though, the girls calmed down enough to let Ran get somewhere that he could sit down. After being stuck in a bed for almost three and a half months, his legs were wobbly and he got short of breath easily. He had leaned heavily on Schuldich while he walked into the shop. From Farfarello's spot near the door to the backroom, it almost looked like the parting of the Red Sea, only it was girls parting for two redheads and a brunette. He chuckled at the annoyed look on Ran's face when he realized that the girls were only there to ogle and not to buy.  
  
However, the girls - also reading his look - surprised him by buying the few things left in the store. After purchasing their flowers the girls said a quick get-well-soon to Ran and left. The look on Ran's face when all the girls were gone was priceless. His eyes were big enough to rival Omi's, and his mouth was hanging open.  
  
"You think that's surprising?" Farfarello asked as he walked over to them. "Wait until you get a look at your room."  
  
"What happened to my room?"  
  
"If I tell you, it'll ruin the surprise. Besides, not telling hurts God."  
  
"I thought you were over that expression."  
  
"It was fitting there."  
  
"If you say so."  
  
~~  
  
That night Ran went to bed early, tired out from all the excitement his return had caused. Schuldich followed him, wanting to ask him something. At the bottom of the stairs Schuldich held his arm out to help Ran ascend. Ran smiled in relief and gratitude.  
  
__ Tired? __ Schuldich asked, knowing it would be easier for Ran to think it that say it.  
  
__ Yeah. I never thought sitting in the corner of a flower shop could be so exhausting. __  
  
__ It's the first real physical thing you've done in over three months. And you didn't just sit there. You had to walk to the car and walk to your spot in the shop. Besides, give it a little time and you'll be putting us to shame with your stamina again. __  
  
__ Thanks, Schu. Oh, was there something you needed? __  
  
"Um . . . " They were standing outside Ran's room, and suddenly Schuldich couldn't seem to get out the right words. "Ran?" The smaller man just watched him, waiting for him to put his words together. "Are you- I mean, do you . . . hate me?"  
  
Ran pulled back in surprise. "Why would I hate you?"  
  
"For killing your family and hurting you so much. And for not telling you we were related as soon as I found out."  
  
"I thought we went over this last week. If you hadn't killed them, chances are I would have never found out I had an older brother and sister. I mean, I still miss them, and I always will, but there's really not much I can do about it now. Takatori's dead, so I've gotten my revenge. And you said you had planned to tell me about us being brothers after the mission so that I would be able to concentrate and not get hurt. Why would that make me hate you?"  
  
"I guess I'm just worried. It's great having a younger brother, and I'm just worried that I'll lose you before I get to know you, and it will all be my fault."  
  
"Don't worry about it," Ran reassured him, hugging him. "How do you hate your only family?" he asked with a smile. Schuldich smiled back and kissed his forehead before opening the door and gently pushing Ran into his room.  
  
"See you tomorrow, Rannie."  
  
~~  
  
The next day, Ran was able to work in the shop, but he stayed behind the counter, and the others had found him a stool to sit on. He was sorting the bills and receipts while they waited for any customers to show up. There were still five minutes before the hoard of girls would show up, so the shop was relatively silent.  
  
"Did any of you even touch these while I was in the hospital?" Ran asked, looking over the bills.  
  
"Uh . . . I think Omi and Nagi tried to once, but then they had to go to school."  
  
"Why do you ask?" Brad questioned, looking over Ran's shoulder to see the papers spread out before him.  
  
"Because, there is no order here whatsoever."  
  
"It's good to have Ran back. He can complain about paperwork, yell at us for not doing it ourselves, then get in a huff and do it himself," Yohji sighed, earning himself glares from two of his teammates.  
  
By the end of the day Ran had gotten everything sorted out, and was in a much better mood. He volunteered to cook that night, and everyone enjoyed their meal. Omi and Nagi had dish duty, and for once did it without complaining. And after a few more days Ran was able to take all of his old duties back.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: Okay, I know I'm kind of leaving you with a dull ending, but that's how I thought it should be. There will be one more chapter for this story, and it WILL have a decent ending, even if it takes me a month to get it right. Please review and let me know what you think so far. I thrive from reviews! My muses crave reviews! See?  
  
Schu & Ran: *foaming at the mouth* Reviews!  
  
Elf: Thanks! 


	10. The Next Beginning

A/N: Hello and thanks genuine_sun, Aymeleh, Lady Jam, Rei Eien, ranma, ln1, Toni, Kori, and Naruka for all the reviews. This is the last chapter of Family Secrets, but I've already got ideas for a sequel if anyone's interested. I plan to use the few suggestions that I got for this chapter, and a few of my own. To those of you who did send in suggestions for the story, I apologize for not using your idea in this story. I did not continue the BradXRan pairing because that's not a pairing I'm overly fond of. I didn't want Brad to have visions of what would happen because that kind of takes away the element of suspense, and I'm bad at suspense anyway. I need all the help I can get. Thanks for reading!  
  
~~  
  
"Leave!"  
  
"Ran, I thought you were working on that!"  
  
"I am, but if I have to listen to one more girl singing annoying carols, I'm going to murder someone!"  
  
"Jingle bells, jingle bells- "  
  
"Ken, I suggest you stop!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Ran's about to lose it with all these songs."  
  
"Oh . . . Grandma got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our house- "  
  
"WHAT are you singing?"  
  
"I heard that on this CD Schuldich got! It's funny! See, this grandma is walking home after getting drunk on eggnog, and gets run over by Santa and the reindeer!"  
  
"KEN! How could you go into my room without asking?"  
  
"I didn't. It was in the CD player in the living room."  
  
"Well, that's okay, then."  
  
It had been three months since Ran had woken up, and Christmas was right around the corner. After Ran had woken up, the others had spent almost every afternoon trying to get him and Brad to act like normal people, and to get Ran to open up. He had been acting nicer towards the girls in the shop; all the Christmas carols and lights were beginning to get to him.  
  
Ken had begun starting every shift singing a different Christmas song. Unfortunately, so had Farfarello. Both had good voices, but after three weeks of two different songs in the morning, and the others' music at night was beginning to wear him thin. He groaned as Farfarello walked in, also singing.  
  
"I'm gettin' not'in' for Christmas; Mommy and Daddy are mad! I'm getting' not'in' for Christmas, 'cause I ain't been not'in but bad!"  
  
Ran whimpered and began to repeatedly bang his head into the counter. Schuldich walked up behind him and placed his hand on Ran's shoulder. Ran looked up into his brother's face, dazed from hitting his head so many times. "Why don't I take over for you today?" Schuldich suggested. Ran nodded and headed next door to get away from the noise.  
  
~~  
  
"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Ke~en, happy birthday to you!" Ken blew out the candles on the cake after making a wish. As soon as the cake was served, everyone left the room, returning a few seconds later and depositing wrapped boxes at Ken's face. Ken's face lit up as he looked first at the boxes, and then at the people who gave them to him.  
  
"I get eight? Really?!" The others laughed as Ken bounced in his seat.  
  
"What did you expect?" Nagi asked.  
  
"Usually it's three presents. One from Ran, one from Yohji, and one from Omi." Ken was still looking at the presents in joyous disbelief as he said it.  
  
"Well, there are eight members of Weiss now, and Manx has a reason to come if there isn't a mission. Because of that, there are eight now," Omi reminded him patiently, knowing that Ken wouldn't be able to wait much longer. Sure enough, less than a minute later, Ken was shredding the paper to see what he had been given.  
  
He had gotten a new soccer ball from Brad, cleats from Schuldich, a jersey from Yohji, and a 'Soccer for Dummies' book from Farfarello. Nagi and Omi gave him tickets to a soccer game, Manx got him a book on coaching and strategies, and there was a $300 gift certificate to a sports store from Ran. Ken's eyes were shining when he looked up at his friends. "Thank you!" he mouthed, unable to make sound come out.  
  
"I believe this is the first successful attempt at getting him to be quiet that didn't involve knocking him out," Yohji whispered to Farfarello, getting a laugh out of the Irish man. Brad then elbowed Yohji in the ribs.  
  
~~  
  
Two days later was Christmas, and everyone, even Yohji and Schuldich, managed to get up early. Manx arrived at about 8:30. After eating breakfast and talking, Ken, Farf, and the chibis couldn't wait any longer. Everyone headed upstairs to the living room, where there were 72 gifts under, beside, and around the tree.  
  
"Maybe next year we'll just draw for a Secret Santa," Omi suggested, eyeing all the presents. Everyone had bought one gift for each other person, giving everyone eight gifts.  
  
"That's pointless," Nagi responded, "Schuldich would just read our minds to find out what he was being given, and then would alter that person's thoughts to get what he wanted."  
  
"I would not!" Nagi merely raised an eyebrow and settled himself on one of the two armchairs in the upstairs living room. Omi had taken the other armchair, Yohji and Manx were sharing one of the love seats, and Schuldich and Ran were sharing the other. Farfarello, Brad, and Ken had taken the couch. The gifts were distributed and everyone began opening their gifts.  
  
~~  
  
"Is this some sort of hint?" Yohji asked, holding up the third shirt he had received.  
  
"Yes," Ran answered. "One of those shirts would be better for missions clothes for one thing."  
  
"What's wrong with what I wear now?"  
  
"Hmm, well, #1: Right now you look like a gay cowboy. #2: That paint on your chest is like a giant target.** #3: I'm getting sick of hearing you complain about being cold."  
  
"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas; only a hippopotamus will do! No crocodiles, rhinoceroses, I only like hippopotamuses! And hippos like me, too!"  
  
"You like hippos, Farf?" Omi asked as Farfie sang and opened the gift from Omi.  
  
"Hippos are the best pets in the world!" Farf exclaimed, struggling with the tape holding the paper to the box. "Look! A hippo!"  
  
Omi smiled as Farfarello held up his stuffed hippo. "I thought you might like a stuffed animal . . . I don't know why . . . "  
  
"Are you going to name it, Farf?" Schuldich asked, smirking.  
  
"Um . . . Momoe?"  
  
"Why Momoe?"  
  
"'Cause that's the name of the lady that owns the flower shop. The hippo's fat, and so is she!"  
  
"Be nice to Momoe-san! She helped chip in to buy you the carrot peeler and the knife set you got for your birthday," Omi reminded him. Farfarello shrugged and told them that the hippo's name was 'Griff'.  
  
"Do we even want to know why he chose Griff?" Nagi asked.  
  
"You won't mind it," Brad told him.  
  
"He's a hippo, and his name's Griff. He's hippo Griff. Like hippogriff from Harry Potter." Farfarello had gotten the first three Harry Potter books for his birthday, and couldn't get enough of them. He had received books four and five for Christmas, and had to be told to open the rest of his gifts instead of stopping there and starting to read.  
  
"Yohji, why did you get me these?" Manx asked, holding up a box. Everyone else in the room tried to hide laughter.  
  
"To . . . uh . . . keep you safe when you and Persia get together," Yohji explained, trying to remember if that was the real reason, or if he had just bought the condoms in a fit of drunken stupidity. Manx shook her head and moved her attention to another box.  
  
~~  
  
The next birthday they celebrated was Schuldich's, on January 12th. No one bought him anything until the eleventh in an attempt to keep him from knowing what they got. Thankfully, Schuldich had promised not to look into their heads if they promised to try and keep their thoughts on something else.  
  
As a gift to himself, Schuldich took Ran out for a day to get to know him better. Even though they had lived and worked together for almost a year, he still knew next to nothing about his younger brother. During the day, they went to a coffee shop, one of Ran's favorite parks, and the cemetery. Ran was surprised that Schuldich knew where Lanen's grave was, but he tried not to say anything about it.  
  
The brothers managed to talk and get to know each other. By the end of the day, though, Schu was ready to kill Kouga. Ran was ready to tear apart Esset piece by piece. On the way home they passed an ice cream shop and decided to stop.  
  
"Are you sure Ken likes Strawberry?" Schuldich asked.  
  
"Yes. Are you sure Brad will like the Pralines?"  
  
"Brad loves Praline. Farf prefers coffee flavor, but he'll have to settle for Bubble Gum."  
  
"They had Coffee, why didn't you get it for him?"  
  
"He has enough energy as it is. What else did we get, again?"  
  
"Mint Chocolate Chip for Nagi, Cookie Dough for Omi, Chocolate for Yohji, Blueberry for you, and Cherry for me."  
  
"Oh, right."  
  
When they got home, Brad was the only one with a complaint. "Schuldich, you know I don't like Praline. You do."  
  
"Then what do you like?" Schu asked.  
  
"Blueberry. What possessed you to buy it for yourself? You never miss an opportunity to say it's disgusting."  
  
"I must have just had you on my mind," Schu responded with a wink, trading ice creams with Brad.  
  
~~  
  
"Ah, come on! Please? It's just one game!"  
  
"No, Ken."  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"Schu, Ran won't go to the game with me!"  
  
"Ran, how cruel! Just go to the game with him."  
  
"Why me?"  
  
"Because you're the one he asked."  
  
"Yeah, so please?  
  
"Fine."  
  
~~  
  
"Ken, why did you want me to come with you?"  
  
"To . . . get you into culture?"  
  
"That would mean ballet and opera. Not a soccer game."  
  
"To get you into today's culture?"  
  
"Just tell me, Ken."  
  
"Because I thought it would be fun to go with you."  
  
"But you would probably have more fun here with one of the others. Farfarello would have gotten into it."  
  
"Yeah, but I wanted to go with you."  
  
"Again, why?"  
  
"I just wanted to!" Ken said, blushing. Ran finally understood what Ken *wasn't* saying, and blushed as well. Neither looked at the other for a few minutes, but when they did, both were wearing shy smiles.  
  
~~  
  
"Mission," Manx announced, walking into the flower shop. There were no customers, so she was able to say it out loud. The guys closed the shop and headed to the basement. All eight had been in the shop, so they were able to start right away.  
  
When the lights were turned back on, Manx looked from face to face. "This mission only requires three people. Persia has decided to let the eight of you decide who will go." No one was surprised when Ran volunteered, or when Schuldich insisted on going with him. Ken volunteered to be the third person to go.  
  
They left at 10:45 that night, and got back at 2:00 the next morning. Schuldich looked like he was caught between blushing and wanting to throw up. Omi and Nagi tried asking about it, but that just made him turn red and run out of the room. The two technicians looked into the living room to ask if Ran or Ken would explain, and found the reason Schuldich was acting strange.  
  
Ken had Ran pressed against the wall and was kissing the braided man thoroughly. Ran obviously wasn't arguing with him. Omi and Nagi backed away from the banister and headed back to the living room. There was no sense in alerting them to their presence if Schuldich was fighting a nosebleed.  
  
~~  
  
The next morning, though, Schu had recovered from his shock and begun teasing the younger two mercilessly. "So, how long have you been together?" he asked, stressing the last word.  
  
Ran didn't look up from where he was making breakfast, but Ken smiled at Schuldich. "Well, our first kiss was on the date you talked Ran into going on with me."  
  
"I never talked Ran into- You wanted him to go with you as a date?!"  
  
"Yep. Thanks for talking him into going with me. Makes you feel like the perfect older brother, doesn't it?" Ran snorted when he heard Schuldich sputtering for a response.  
  
"H- have you . . . ?"  
  
"Nah." Ken looked at Ran, who was beginning to blush at the turn in the conversation. "But- "  
  
"I don't need to know!" Schu shouted, covering his ears and shutting his eyes. Ken laughed and sent him a mental picture. "AH! Leave my brother alone!" Schuldich yelled, scratching at his temples. Then he stopped and looked over at Ken. "I wouldn't have thought of you as the kind to be interested in bondage." Ran choked on his coffee at that statement and glared at Ken.  
  
"What are you planning on doing?" Ken just smiled and looked innocent. Ran turned to Schuldich. "I told you and Yohji to stop making all those innuendoes in his presence. Do you see why now?"  
  
"Better than you can," Schu muttered. "By the way, how did this conversation get turned against me?"  
  
"You asked about your brother's sex life."  
  
"Right."  
  
~~  
  
A few weeks later, Ken and Ran were still going out, but everyone had pretty much accepted it. Even Brad had wished them well. Farfarello had checked in his room, but found no voodoo materials, so they considered his blessing to be sincere.  
  
A few more missions had been undertaken, but none ended with the problems that the first had. A couple more months (and birthdays) went by, and everyone settled in with each other fully. It was almost impossible to tell that they had not always lived and worked together. Being a team, and dealing with the secrets unveiled because of that, had given them all a chance at a new beginning.  
  
~~  
  
A/N: I actually got both of the first reasons from the story 'Back in the Saddle Again'. I didn't ask permission to use them, and I'd like to say sorry to the author if he/she is reading this. Please forgive me! I don't know much about the start and end of the soccer season, but in this, it'll end in January or something. Also, I don't know if they would celebrate Christmas or not, but in this, they do.  
  
As I said earlier, I do have ideas for a sequel, but only if I get enough reviews asking for it. In case you care, here's what I've got of a summary so far: The missions have gone without a problem ever since the first one where Ran was put in a coma. Now another problem arises when a mysterious chemical is sprayed at three of the members. Why do they suddenly want to go to an Amusement Park? And why is Schuldich buying Pull-Ups?  
  
There you go. That's what I have of a summary so far, but it could take awhile for me to get it up even if I get a lot of review asking for it immediately. School's starting up soon and I still have to go. v.v;; 


End file.
